PHOTOJOURNALISM

PROJECTS

“MSC Splendida” is one of the many cruise ships sailing around the world these days. It can host more than 3,200 passengers and 1,300 crew members. And while cruises are a fast growing business and represents a very meaningful part of the holidays economy, very few of us know about what’s happening behind the curtains of such a complicated mechanism. Who are the people working hardly everyday behind the scenes of such floating wonders? Deck 4 tries to tell some of the daily life stories of those men and women working on board to make a perfect vacation come true. Usually they come from many different countries. They work on board an average of 8 months in a row for several years, depending on their ambitions, endurance and dreams. And they live in a world apart, with their own rules and habits, like a tribe. But such a life style allows them to save most of their salary and to go back to their countries after few years, with their dreams come true.

Alisa, 23 years old from Ukraina for example, is the only floor runner on the boat. She dreams of a comfortable house where she can raise her children in the future; Byamba and Maral, 19 and 20 years old artists from Mongolia, would like to create a circus in their country and complete their studies in foreign languages. Fiammetta, 29 years old, a training and development manager from Italy, would like to simply move to the United States while Samrat, a 26 years old baker from Nepal, wishes to have his own bakery. Ko Ko, a 40 years old bar man from Myanmar, prefers to continue listening to passengers’ stories during his shifts and Balaji, a 34 years old sous-chef from India dreams of his own holiday house.